WEBVTT - Cradle to Prison 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:02.840 Dear Governor is a production of I Heart Media and 0:00:02.920 --> 0:00:09.440 three Months Media. Dear Governor Newsom, Dear Mr Governor Newsom, 0:00:09.480 --> 0:00:13.160 this is an open letter to Governor Gavin Newsom, Dear 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:27.440 Governor news Problem. To read Jarvis Master's book That Bird 0:00:27.520 --> 0:00:30.600 Has My Wings and Autobiography of an Innocent Man on 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:33.760 Death Row is to know that his opportunity for success 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:36.800 in living the American dream was hijacked long before He's 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:40.519 So much is inhaled his first breath, and tragically, his 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:45.040 story is anything but an isolated experience. There's a disturbing 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:47.960 phenomenon in this country in which a population of babies, 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:52.760 more specifically babies of color, and even more specifically impoverished 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:55.760 baby boys of color, are pushed out of the womb 0:00:55.920 --> 0:01:00.240 onto a direct pathway to prison. Marian Wright, a woman 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:04.280 President Emerita and founder of the Children's Defense Fund, who 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:08.480 identified this trend and coined the phrase cradle to prison pipeline, writes, 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:11.760 the most dangerous place for a child to try to 0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:14.600 grow up in America is at the intersection of race 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:17.640 and poverty. Folk, you know, we're losing it and we're 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:20.640 going backwards in just one or two generations here and 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:23.240 this in my belief is that this is the worst 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:25.679 crisis based by the black community sent slavery in that 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:30.600 incarceration is becoming the new American apartheid. We're feeding poor 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:33.200 children about the hundreds of thousands each year into this 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:36.920 pipeline to prison and the dead in lives um and 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:40.200 um at younger and younger ages um. And we've got 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:42.520 to stay stopped because it's gonna under the last fifty 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:46.080 years of progress. Jarvis grew up on the corner of 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:49.680 race and poverty, but his particular intersection was so perilous 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:53.200 it spit him right past the cradle the prison pipeline 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:56.960 straight to the cradle to death row pipeline. We've enlisted 0:01:57.040 --> 0:02:00.240 in Little McCray, a personal mentee of Jarvis and a 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:03.240 member of the Truth Workers Theater Company, to help us 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:06.639 tell Jarvis's story in his own words from That Bird 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:10.760 Has My Wings. It was the late sixties when my mother, 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:14.600 Cynthia and my stepfather Oldis from among the biggest heroin 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:19.120 users and deals in Long Beach, California. From the outside, 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:22.080 the house didn't look like a dope house. My parents 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:24.600 had lots of money from being in the drug underworld, 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:27.400 so they could afford a front house that drew no 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:31.880 suspicion or complaints from the neighbors. The house was a 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:35.120 place where my parents clientele and whoever they chose to 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:38.920 bring with them could always, the matter the time of day, 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:42.680 walk right in and shoot their dope indoors off the streets. 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:46.320 Many of their customers would nod themselves to sleep right 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:49.320 there on the living room or bathroom floor and stay 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:54.640 for hours and hours the house. You know, Heroin was 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:59.400 a big thing, Jarvis masters. Everyone had those little things 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:03.520 wrapped around on their arms and had a little uh 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:07.120 shaving kit. They shot dope in the kitchen, They shot 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:10.320 open in the living room, they shot dope in the restroom. 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:15.320 They argued about who was who had more dope in 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:18.880 the other and dope was like all over the place, 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:22.520 you know. To avoid the prostitutes and the narrow dwells 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:25.840 drifting in and out of their home, Jarvis, his older 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:29.840 sister Charlene, his younger sisters Bertie and Carlette, and baby 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:32.760 Dean found comfort in the safety of the attic, their 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:36.920 own private treehouse. We love that attic that at It 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:40.440 was somewhere where we just love staying at. You know, 0:03:40.600 --> 0:03:44.280 when we when we thought there was gonna be violence downstairs, 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:47.640 We're going to that attic when we felt like, you know, 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:52.000 we were too hungry to move around, we'll go up 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:55.600 in that attic. We would that mean, Uh, it was 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:57.920 something that we found it. We thought no one in 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:00.960 that house would walk in that house or leave that house. 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:03.600 We know that exists. It was a good place for 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:05.800 us to be when we thought that there was something 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:10.520 going down in that house that we didn't want to 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:14.480 be around. So yeah, we we we were living that 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:18.200 attic and it was a really really good place for us. 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:20.960 It was here that they could sleep soundly like babies, 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:25.599 despite their empty stomachs, the lack of electricity, and their filthy, 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:29.080 ragged clothes. An old white woman lived in the house 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:32.360 behind us. Every morning she will put food off for us. 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:35.480 She someone knew that we were being left to starve 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:39.799 in our own house. We counted on her food sometimes 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:42.600 when no adult was around the house for days. This 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:45.520 was the only food we had. The white woman used 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:49.760 to set food out for us to and that was 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:52.159 our breakfast. You know, we always thought that's what we 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:54.880 had coming. You know, we didn't know if she was 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:58.400 a parent, and she was doing this for my mother. 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:01.280 We didn't have no idea about what that step was 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:06.440 going on, but we we survived off of it. Jarvis 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:09.440 has only one vivid memory of his father, just before 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:13.640 his stepfather Otis came into the picture, and little McCray continues, 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:17.200 We were all in the bedroom where Mama had been 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:20.800 trying to pack our stuff. In the chaotic frenzy, My father, 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:25.480 whose name I never knew, banked open the front door, yelling, 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:28.440 where are you, bitch? I'm gonna kill you and your kids. 0:05:29.400 --> 0:05:33.080 Panic stricken, Mama grabbed me, jerked my face up to hers, 0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:36.880 and shook me, saying if anything happens to me, you'd 0:05:36.920 --> 0:05:39.920 take care of your sisters, and she crammed the three 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:42.520 of us under the bed, one by one, with me 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:46.560 on the outside. Now I heard my father yelling where 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:51.080 are those kids, sweat dripping from her face. Her mother 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:55.520 ran out of the bedroom, hearing the bam bam bam 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:59.000 about father's fists against her flesh. I knew what happened 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:01.960 when she got to the next from my sisters, and 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:05.520 I shook with every blow as if our mother's cries 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:10.159 or our own and one cries stopped. We can still 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:14.200 hear the blows. But that wasn't all we heard. The 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:17.480 furniture was breaking in, glass was flying as the pictures 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:20.919 fell down from the walls. My father had slammed it 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:25.039 to us like hurricane. Then with a kick of his foot, 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:29.320 the bedroom door smashed open, and the storm stood at 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:33.680 our threast hold From under the bed, while I could 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:38.159 see was these shoes, the scariest sight I've ever seen. 0:06:39.279 --> 0:06:41.320 I freezed my eyes to catch a glimpse of the 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:45.920 man who filled the shoes, but his voice interrupted me, 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:50.760 where you motherfucking kids at. I'm gonna kill you too. 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:55.440 Thankfully he never thought to look beneath the bed, but 0:06:55.480 --> 0:07:00.480 the violence their mother endured is indelible. Hearing our dreams, 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:04.360 a neighbor came in and called an ambulance from home. 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:09.920 After that, I never asked about my father. I've always 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:12.720 remembered those shoes trying to stump out the light, of 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:16.280 my mother taking me to paint the house lass of Forever. 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:21.200 Though only six point five percent of California's are black, 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:26.080 African Americans make up of the prison population and thirty 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:29.760 six percent of those condemned to death. The pipeline from 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:33.120 the intersection of poverty and race to the execution chambers 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:37.040 in California's state prison is difficult to refute, and along 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:40.760 the pathway looms largely a highly dysfunctional foster care and 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:45.080 juvenile justice system. Jarvis and his siblings were removed from 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:47.520 their mother's care after she was beaten within an inch 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:52.200 of her life. Though separated from his siblings, Jervis's first 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:55.520 four years in foster care was a brief, albeit profound 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:59.200 example of what's right with the system. Dennis and Mamie 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:03.440 PROCs were elderly, god fearing Christians who first took Jarvis 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:07.200 into their loving home and under their nurturing wings of 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:10.000 the Proxies. He writes their faith in the power of 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:12.800 loving hearts gave me the best years of my childhood, 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:16.320 somehow erasing many of the horrors I experienced before I 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:20.440 walked into their lives. Mammy and Dennis was my very 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:24.920 first foster home, and it was the first foster home. 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:27.040 It was the first place in my life that I 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:31.760 saw all the contradictions of where I had came from 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:34.880 and what I had now. They loved me morning anything 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:38.000 in the world. You know, I was the only kid, 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:42.160 you know, I had my whole little bedroom. I had 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:46.880 a whole huge backyard, a real huge backyard. Uh, the 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:50.319 red porch, the whole thing. You know, how was the 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.679 darling in the house, the darling in the whole block. Actually, 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:56.920 you know, it was when I first really went to school, 0:08:57.080 --> 0:09:02.080 when I first really got the great first really played 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:07.120 in the sandbox. Uh, everything you know, and the difference 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:11.480 between there and where I came from was shocking. It 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:14.720 was it was like I didn't even want to tell 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:18.240 the stories after a while, and they didn't make each 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:21.840 other stories near they didn't need to know the stories. 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:28.240 Whatever Social services had communicated to them. They understood where 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:35.640 I had came from, and they were very understanding of 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:40.520 that life. They didn't show sadness for it because they 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:43.800 didn't want to wear that off on me. But they 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:46.920 understood it. They understood it, and they knew their role 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:53.000 and having this opportunity, you know, to care for uh, 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:58.360 to care for me. What are some of your Oh man, 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:03.400 what are my favorite memories? M hmmm, Uh, Christmas is 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:08.320 and my first bike and my first real day in 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:14.400 the first grade, in the second grade, and ah made me. 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:20.760 I loved her so much. Um. What was she like? Uh? 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:24.120 She was. She was rolled off. She was rolling into 0:10:24.360 --> 0:10:28.679 a whole bunch of things. She was your your mother, 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:35.440 your auntie, your grandmother, uh, your disciplinarian. It was all 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:38.000 these things, you know, and she would try to be 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:40.640 all those things to be one kind of person, and 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:44.160 that's where she made herself into For me. Uh, Dennis 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:47.520 was the same way. You know. They were older folks. 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:52.720 They made life very very comfortable for me. You know, 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:55.680 I didn't have to do a whole lot. The child 0:10:55.760 --> 0:11:01.040 in me just came rolling back, and I didn't know 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:05.880 how much hurt and pain I had suffered, um being 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:16.280 abandoned like that. Hm. You you you tell a story 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:23.440 about them taking you to church? What was that like? Oh? Wow, yeah, 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:26.840 you know. I at first, let me just say this, 0:11:27.559 --> 0:11:30.000 I have never when I first went to church with 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:34.240 with Mammy and Dennis, I had never ever had seen 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:37.880 so many black folks in my life. So that was 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:42.280 the first thing that had just blown me away. You know. 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:50.200 Mammy was a very very light, loved, appreciative person in 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:55.480 the church and she always got the best seats. Jennie 0:11:55.559 --> 0:11:58.280 was a deacon, so he always set way up there 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:05.440 and her friends were They were the most bizarre women 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:10.199 I never saw in my life. You know. Well, they 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:13.840 they would have them. They would go through these holy 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:17.920 ghost moments, you know, where they were, they were where 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:20.240 they be trying to get the devil out of them, 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:22.760 you know, and they'd be spinning on the ground and 0:12:23.160 --> 0:12:27.840 sweating and kicking and like she's having a seizure or something. 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:32.120 And then Mammy would then down and put a fan 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:35.320 on her face, and I'm thinking, oh God, I got 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:37.679 you out of here, you know what I mean. They 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:39.760 didn't call the they to say we need some help 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:42.800 here where we need some help, We need to get 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:46.160 this woman off the ground. No, they just get real 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:48.480 close to her and fanner fan and woman on the 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:52.040 face like everything she's doing is okay. And I just 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:55.160 knew that wasn't cool. You know. I didn't like it. 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:57.640 I hated it. So I gave my life. I gave 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:02.200 my allowances back just so I don't have to go. Um, 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:04.160 so you gave your allowance back so you didn't have 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:07.880 to go to church. Yeah, they said they made it deal. 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:10.560 And they said if you go to church, which I 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:13.440 can't remember because they used to say three bits, four bits, 0:13:13.480 --> 0:13:16.600 so they never said fifty said they I was calling bits, 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:19.720 you know. And at first I was collecting the money, 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:23.280 you know, coins and everything, and then one morning I said, 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:25.880 you know what, you guys can have this pack. You know, 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:31.480 I'm not going you know. Yeah, I was one of 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:35.880 the first executive decisions I ever made in my life. 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:38.440 This is not confident. Did you stay home? And they 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:40.920 went to church after he gave the money back. The 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:43.920 people a cross street babysit at me. I was cutting 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:49.320 their loss was twice as much, it was. That was brilliant, Yeah, 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:54.520 I was. I was cutting their lives with twice as much. Um. Yeah, 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:59.640 tell me about how it all came to an end. Well, 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:03.400 it was the reality that I lived in, and there 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:06.840 was reality that I learned later. The reality that I 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:10.800 lived in was that they were getting old and they 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:14.199 were just not able to keep up with me. It 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:16.560 just couldn't keep up, you know, and it broke their 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:21.000 heart to have to let me find me another place. 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:28.120 But in reality, Mamie was diagnosed with cancer and she 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:36.120 was dying. And that's the story I never got, you know. Um, 0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:40.600 So they Dennis couldn't do it by himself. As soon 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:43.480 as I left, maybe a month or two after I left, 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:47.440 she died. I was crushed. That really spuned me in 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:52.120 a way where I compared everybody to her and no one, 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:56.760 no one ever got as close to her in my life. 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:06.800 Then she was. If the proxy showed what's right within 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:10.440 our foster care system, Earl and Florence du Pomp showed 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:13.640 quite the opposite. This was the next household. Jarvis was 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:16.080 shipped too, and it was nothing short of a nightmare. 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:18.640 He was little more than a paycheck to them, and 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:21.080 a lot less than an innocent nine year old boy. 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:25.280 This is what happened to him for confiding his grievances 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:28.920 to Mamie and Dennis. Florence looked down at my hands 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:31.160 and told me to wash before I left the house. 0:15:32.080 --> 0:15:34.600 I was at the sink later in when she suddenly 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:38.680 came up behind me, gripping one of my hands. She 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:41.920 forced it down into the drain for split second. I 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:44.640 imagine she thought I dropped the soap and was wanting 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:47.120 me to retrieve it. And I saw a flip that 0:15:47.200 --> 0:15:50.800 gob was disposal switch. Tips of my fingers felt bits 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:54.120 of food, bouncing multi role taking blades. I tried to 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:57.160 put my hand out as Florence kept pushing it down 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:01.720 for towards the blades. We were like two arm wrestlers. 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:05.840 I didn't know why Florence was doing this. She was 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:10.560 not only mean, she had become totally possessed. I could 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:14.200 feel her evil. That's willing to hear my screams. The 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:18.120 seconds felt like minutes thanks to the soul. She kept 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:21.840 losing her grip, which may have been was saved my fingers. 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:26.920 If you ever, Florence said, spinning into my air, try 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:30.040 calling somebody else about what goes on in this house. 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:34.960 You won't have this hand, don't you ever? Ever? She 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:40.000 seed it through her teeth. Do you hear me? Do you? Yes? Please? 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:47.440 I won't. I won't, I promise I won't. What the 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:53.160 trip tell me about him. I've been thinking about this 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:57.240 for many, many years before I even wrote that book, 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:03.320 and I realized there so many people in prison, not 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:08.640 just on death row, but in prison, had known someone 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:12.960 like that in their younger life. These are the faces 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:16.320 and names of people we can I can go out 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:18.480 to any yard and we can talk about for you 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:22.720 for for for hours. We can compare life experiences with 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:26.960 these people. We could show our rooms where we was 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:30.160 hit when we were first hitting, second hit, and third hit, 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:33.400 you know, and what that did to us when we 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:37.119 ran away from that, and we ran away from something 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:40.719 just like that and something just like that again, and 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:44.080 then we found the most safest place is in some 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:48.440 juvenile hall with the dormitory that had in the structure 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:50.639 that we went to school early in the morning. We 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:53.520 came back and when we got in trouble, we got 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:58.399 uh thrown into a hole. So the dew Ponts is 0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:03.440 very much in that in that way they stack you up. 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:06.879 You went in there and there's five or six maybe 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:09.760 more than that, foster kids, and they're in a very 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:15.040 small room and there were three bump bets, so two 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:19.040 bump bets but three three decks. I was put at 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:22.360 the top. I was the smallest. I can raise my 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:26.639 arm halfway and I can touch the ceiling. It was 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:32.200 It was junky, it was stinky. It was just completely 0:18:32.320 --> 0:18:38.040 utterly different from where I had been to me raised 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:43.080 with Mammy and Dennis. It was completely utterly different. I 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:46.360 didn't understand it at all. And even though I had 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:49.480 a little with my mother and we had that experiences 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:52.119 that I can always think about it and reflect back on, 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:57.600 this was totally different. This was a machine a systematic 0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:02.000 way of because I'm in wealthy by the by the 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:06.240 exploitation of kids and a juvenile system that was just 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:08.720 bursting out the scene with what do we do with 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:13.919 these kids? So that story is a story that you know, 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:18.280 has all the environments everything you need to be horrified 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:21.200 to be that. So many people I know in jail 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:24.199 and prisons and wherever I've been know they know the 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:29.000 DuPonts Dupontsism very very It is one of those well 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:33.639 written books that we all can talk about. I was abused, 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:37.000 I was whipped, I was thrown, I was dropped out 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:41.800 of stairs. I was my hand was forced into a 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:50.480 a garbage disposed machinery type thing, a rotor everything you know. Um, 0:19:50.600 --> 0:19:55.840 I was made to eat food out of garbage as 0:19:55.840 --> 0:20:01.280 a distillery action. And it was the pits. It was 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:06.400 the pits. And I watched people for the first time 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:12.000 in my life at that point endure pain. Earlier, I 0:20:12.040 --> 0:20:18.920 didn't know what I knew would being very hungry, starving, 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:22.800 you know, wanting to eat so bad that there was 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:25.840 nothing there to eat. I understood that. That's fine. I 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:28.479 did that, that was cool. I understood it. It was 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:32.359 something of an experience that Mammy and Dennis told me 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:36.960 that is not what real people do. Only sick people 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:40.360 do those things. And your mother and your father and 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:44.439 their friends were not well. I dug it. I understood it. 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:47.560 Maybe did I want to believe it so I don't 0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:51.720 have to tell no hard story about my mother. That 0:20:51.840 --> 0:20:55.879 might be the case. But this was systematic. This was 0:20:56.160 --> 0:21:01.399 a design way of treating children. It was a way 0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:06.520 of raising kids that were not your own. Their kids 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:11.359 lived upstairs, their vituals were flushed. We weren't allowed to 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:16.080 go up there, and we had to sleep down there. Um. 0:21:16.200 --> 0:21:21.840 It was hell. It was real hell. And someone told 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:26.040 me how to go to juvenile Hall instead. They showed 0:21:26.040 --> 0:21:28.199 me how to run away just so I can go 0:21:28.280 --> 0:21:31.679 to juvenile Hall instead. So that was the kind of 0:21:31.720 --> 0:21:35.000 place it was. I don't wish that only anyone you know. 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:43.800 It was not write at all. Jarvis eventually found the 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:47.359 courage to escape the bondages of the DuPont House of Terror, 0:21:47.560 --> 0:21:50.640 only to find himself at times homeless or bouncing from 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:53.280 one foster facility to the next, in and out of 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:57.320 juvenile detention centers, from the notorious McLaren Hall Children's Center 0:21:57.359 --> 0:21:59.960 to the even more notorious boys Town of the Desert. 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:04.440 McLaren Hall incidentally was shuttered years ago under dark clouds 0:22:04.440 --> 0:22:08.520 of rampant abuse and molestation. Boystown the Desert was a 0:22:08.560 --> 0:22:12.400 turning point in my life. It was because of where 0:22:12.440 --> 0:22:20.080 I went after Boystown, After Boystown where all hell broke blues, 0:22:20.560 --> 0:22:27.600 whereafter DuPonts was very abusive on every level. The academy 0:22:27.960 --> 0:22:35.560 was very structured into a military cadet type school where 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:41.800 every act of violence was justified, every show of cowardness 0:22:41.920 --> 0:22:47.320 were treated with the most disrespect, and it was a 0:22:47.400 --> 0:22:51.159 challenge to keep up with that stuff. We were forced 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:53.600 to fight. We was forced to learn how to fight. 0:22:53.680 --> 0:22:57.919 We were forced to run. We were forced to endure pain. 0:22:58.760 --> 0:23:01.639 We were forced to give of pain, to issuate pain, 0:23:01.760 --> 0:23:06.280 to to to enjoy it, to make people feel they 0:23:06.400 --> 0:23:11.119 deserved it. We were programmed to be very very violent people, 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:16.959 young kids. We challenge each other by putting cigarettes between 0:23:16.960 --> 0:23:22.480 our arms and to see who flinched. Counselors, cadet counselors 0:23:22.520 --> 0:23:26.680 were bet on that, and I was trained to be 0:23:26.880 --> 0:23:30.480 very very violent. That was a turning point in my life. 0:23:31.000 --> 0:23:35.919 That child that was abandoned, that that small house and 0:23:36.640 --> 0:23:40.520 that kid that that that toddler who was with Mami 0:23:40.640 --> 0:23:45.680 and Dennis, that kids that didn't understand why people treated 0:23:45.680 --> 0:23:50.240 people so bad, and the DuPonts, then the peer pressuret 0:23:50.560 --> 0:23:56.080 boys town nothing. None of those compared to the California 0:23:56.280 --> 0:24:03.080 Military Academy. Nothing. We were made to hurt people and 0:24:03.200 --> 0:24:09.040 made to endure pain. I was pretty good at it 0:24:09.520 --> 0:24:12.280 because I kind of looked up to these guys, you know, 0:24:12.359 --> 0:24:15.720 the counselors, you know, who showed me how to kick 0:24:15.800 --> 0:24:18.560 box and showed me how to fight, and showed me 0:24:18.640 --> 0:24:22.680 how to not lose, and show me how to take 0:24:22.760 --> 0:24:26.879 pain by cigarette butts, and who would buy me a 0:24:26.960 --> 0:24:30.440 six pack up Sodas if I can keep my arm 0:24:30.720 --> 0:24:36.160 there the longest. It was a very, very very painful thing. 0:24:36.960 --> 0:24:42.040 I compared its training bulldogs at an early age. It 0:24:42.280 --> 0:24:47.359 was training bulldogs at an early age for me to 0:24:47.520 --> 0:24:52.280 a flick violence. I've seen guys get buffed in their 0:24:52.280 --> 0:24:57.080 head with sticks and they did not had cried, you know, 0:24:57.600 --> 0:25:00.359 and they didn't if they had a has to have 0:25:00.440 --> 0:25:04.240 a pistol that was shut up everybody in there. Then 0:25:04.280 --> 0:25:06.359 I see that a lot when I think about some 0:25:06.440 --> 0:25:10.120 of the virus I see today. I was taught violence 0:25:10.160 --> 0:25:13.520 and then and I don't never think I I really 0:25:14.080 --> 0:25:18.000 came back from that. In my early age teenage years, 0:25:18.400 --> 0:25:21.080 I learned almost everything that I needed to learn to 0:25:21.200 --> 0:25:25.119 defend myself, and I got pretty good at it. Just 0:25:25.280 --> 0:25:29.280 something about me just locked up, just locked in, you know. 0:25:29.400 --> 0:25:31.800 It was something about me that just said that you 0:25:31.920 --> 0:25:34.800 on your own. Now, you know, when you were the way, 0:25:34.920 --> 0:25:36.960 you know, make sure no one hurts you when you 0:25:38.000 --> 0:25:40.120 any other place you go to, you know, make sure 0:25:40.200 --> 0:25:42.679 no one hurts you. You're not going to depend on 0:25:43.200 --> 0:25:48.080 asking people are telling on anyone or you know this 0:25:48.119 --> 0:25:50.840 guy he hit me in the face. There was none 0:25:50.840 --> 0:25:53.480 of that, no more. There was none of that. And 0:25:53.640 --> 0:25:56.560 I met all these guys in prison almost you know, 0:25:57.160 --> 0:25:59.000 this is what blows me and where even when I 0:25:59.040 --> 0:26:03.840 think about it today, it was based on your performance 0:26:04.200 --> 0:26:07.159 in the academy that reflected who you were when you 0:26:07.240 --> 0:26:16.679 got to prison. If you were week depended upon someone else, 0:26:17.760 --> 0:26:23.280 scared taking advantage of in the academy, you was expected 0:26:23.280 --> 0:26:25.919 to be that same person when you got to prison, 0:26:26.359 --> 0:26:30.160 and people made you that same person when you got 0:26:30.200 --> 0:26:33.959 the prison got stabbed because they were that same person. 0:26:35.040 --> 0:26:39.600 So that would make me strong that would make me survive, 0:26:40.240 --> 0:26:45.840 because my track record as a kid really reflected everywhere 0:26:45.880 --> 0:26:50.800 else I've been. Even today, I know, I know that 0:26:51.080 --> 0:26:54.560 young kids who are in June all they're trying to 0:26:54.600 --> 0:26:56.679 get out of for who they were when they were 0:26:56.680 --> 0:26:59.800 in June the hall when they come to prison, because 0:26:59.840 --> 0:27:05.480 the history follows you. Those life experiences as children in 0:27:05.720 --> 0:27:11.840 foster homes, boys homes, champs has follow us where we 0:27:11.960 --> 0:27:16.120